Post navigation

The Story: Ryan’s 2000 BMW E39 M5

I got bored enough in January to reach out to the new owner of my old S62, and see what he had found out with it. He bought my used engine to install in a project car of his. He told me a year ago that he planned to rebuild it before installing it in another car. I received several photos of my old engine opened up, and taken apart. After 192,000 miles, the bottom end still looked clean, with no sludge or anything worrisome. The connecting rod bearings certainly showed some wear, but nothing that would have caused imminent failure. The new owner even said that the timing chain guides (original) still appeared to be quite strong. This engine had a lot of life left.

February, 2017

While cleaning out some parts from my basement, I came across my first short shift kit: the UUC EVO 3. I vastly prefer the E60 545i kit, so I ended up selling the UUC setup to an M5 owner in Los Angeles. I was able to get the car out again on a 70 degree day in February. 50 miles on that day!March, 2017

The airbag recall. I was able to get a new BMW airbag per the Takata recall. The old airbag was in good shape, but this one is actually brand new!

I had been troubleshooting a thud in the steering when turning from full-lock left to right. I ended up replacing the center tie rod, front left wheel carrier, steering gearbox, steering servotronic, rear lower control arm bushings, and rear ball joints. No more clunk, nice and tight again! I also did an oil change, marking one year since the rebuild. I sent a sample to BlackStone Laboratories for analysis, and the results were overwhelmingly positive!

Summer, 2017

I was able to drive the car a bit over the summer in-between travels, and even get to a few shows! The Final Timmayfest included.

Fall, 2017

This past fall was actually quite troublesome. I returned from a California trip to discover a fuel leak. I had the trifecta on the dashboard indicating an ABS problem. A boot on a front wishbone tore. The driveshaft U-joint developed play. A large list of parts were rebuilt/replaced:

Fuel pump

Fuel transfer pump

All fuel vent hoses

Fuel feed lines

Fuel system hardware

Driveshaft

Rebuilt ABS module

Front wheel speed sensor

Front wishbones

Front sway bar links

MAFs

Transmission heat shielding

The parts that came out were disgusting, they looked like Titanic artifacts. Anything with any rust or dried out rubber has been replaced under there now!

On a positive note, once all of the mechanics were again addressed, I got to do two little fun things. I try to do a retrofit or something extra each year. This time, I retrofitted European-style rear fog lights, and the warning triangle!

November, 2017

The last drive of 2017, and quite possibly the last drive on Ohio roads was November 6th. My M5 now sits cleanly in the garage with a battery charger on it waiting for nice days ahead.

As I mentioned before, this article will be updated as things change. Stay tuned, and feel free to leave me some comments or feedback!

114 thoughts on “The Story: Ryan’s 2000 BMW E39 M5”

Comment navigation

Looking better than ever! I remember when you first got the car– I didn’t really understand what it was but years later I finally have a decent idea lol. I want to make some high-resolution recordings of the engine, exhaust note and other sounds from your E39 one of these days. I’ll make it into ringtones and we can upload them here. I use the unlock sound from my old 540 as my MacBook Pro system sound and it’s loads of fun.

Hey Michael! We should definitely do that, that would be a pretty cool sound kit to offer. It’s still in Ohio for now but will make it’s way to San Diego before long. You’re more than welcome to come to either place any time. 🙂

Hey Ryan, so I have 99 540i and I have had to replace all the window regulators on every door multiple times. And I just bought an 01 M5, but I’m just so paranoid of using the windows and the sun roof on that car because I don’t want to replace the regulators anymore. I have seen in many of you’re videos that you just roll down your windows and sun roof like you’ve never had this problem before. I know this is quiet a common problem but are you using some kit that reinforces the regulators? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

Window regulators can be hit and miss. My M5 has all original regulators, now 17.5 years old with 196,700 miles of road experience. They all work perfectly fine. Some of the OEM ones do fail though. The problem is, owners or cheap shops put in very cheap aftermarket regulators, that are even worse. Then the vehicle owner has to keep replacing those cheap ones. It’s best to have an experienced installer replace any broken stock ones with new Genuine BMW parts.

But definitely don’t be afraid to use the windows. It’s a $75,000 german luxury car, the winders had better work.

Hello Ryan! I love your car! I always dream about the e39 M5, the best sedan sport car ever and when I saw your and your dedication, that’s push me to find my car. But you made me nervous about your AA code comment! I have the same code. Could you please explain to me how dangerous this code is? Should I stop the car until I solve this problem? Please let me know!

You need to program the BM53 radio into USA area in order for certain features to work. To do this, make sure that everything is connected correctly first. Go to the driver’s seat. You must put the BM53 radio into program mode to select the proper area. Within less than a second of hitting the power button, press and continue to hold the SELECT button on the 16:9 display. Within about 5 seconds, you’ll be in the menu looking at the serial number of the radio. Use the CD track skip buttons ( < and > ) to cycle through the different options. When you get to ‘area’ or ‘location’, press numbers 1 or 2 on the left of the 16:9 display until USA is displayed. Once it is, press the radio power button (volume knob) to save these settings and turn off the radio. Note that the GAL option in the service mode is speed-variable volume on a scale of 1-6. If you want this system to be aggressive, select a higher number using the preset buttons 1-6.

Hey buddy I WS watching one of your videos and I was wondering why didn’t you install a front sway bar as well I seen a set of front and rear eibach sway bar kit is there a reason not to use the front ? Ps I have a 01 530i sport 5 speed new owner here and look foward to become a member thanks Mike

I considered the front sway bar, and did some research on it. The general consensus was that the front bar is important when you do a square wheel/tire setup, bringing 275 width tires up front as well. I have no desire to do that (cost, road dirt/dust on car), so I decided to keep the stock front sway bar.

Bro I feel like I’m talking to a celebrity as you are so cool and I’m not sure if there rare but I’ll take your word for it 100% I would love to send you some pics of it but not sure where to send them I am supposed to be paying for it tomorrow! I did notice on a cold start up a little clicking noise that lasted a half of second and went away the car does have a 179k miles 1 owner with a stack of receipts from the last two years worth over $10k so the ran great I’m 42 years old and I never felt a car ride like that with so many miles and I’m a bimmer fan I might ad amd thanks for getting back to me so quickly yours truly Mike. D

Haha I am no celebrity! Feel free to send pictures to ryan@e39source.com. Noise on startup is VANOS, which is pretty normal. My 2002 330xi with the M54B30 does that as well. Sounds like a great car! If you have the time, the E39Source community would love to see the car in the form of an intro / DIY vids maybe. More at http://www.e39source.com/participate. Enjoy it!